Armando Iannucci

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Armando Giovanni Iannucci (pronounced /ɑrˈmændoʊ jəˈnuːtʃi/) (born 28 November 1963, Glasgow) is a Scottish comedian, writer, director, performer and radio producer. He has been described by The Daily Telegraph as "the hardman of political satire".[1]

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[edit] Early life

Iannucci's father, Armando (Snr), is from Naples, Italy, while his mother is from Glasgow, Scotland, where Iannucci was born. His father, who came to Scotland in 1950, ran a pizza factory. Armando has two brothers and a sister. In his teens he thought seriously about becoming a Roman Catholic priest. Iannucci was educated at St Peter's Primary School, St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow, the University of Glasgow, and University College, Oxford, where he read English gaining an MA in 1986. He abandoned graduate work on 17th-century religious language with particular reference to Milton's Paradise Lost, to pursue his career in comedy.

[edit] Career

Despite his involvement in many facets of British comedy as a producer, writer and performer, Iannucci has remained relatively unknown amongst the British public. His projects include Smokehammer, a web-based project with Chris Morris, the short-lived topical satire Gash, as well as three programmes for BBC Radio 3, including Mobiles Off!, a 20-minute segment on classical concert-going etiquette. As well as television and radio work, he also wrote a book in 1997 entitled Facts and Fancies, compiling some articles from his newspaper columns, which was turned into a BBC Radio 4 series. A little-known radio series called Scraps With Iannucci followed late in 1998, in which Iannucci used his tape-fiddling skills to present a review of the year.

[edit] On the Hour

Iannucci has an extensive history in British radio and television. First receiving widespread fame in the early 1990s as the producer for On the Hour and then The Day Today, he received critical acclaim for both his own talents as a writer and a producer, and for first bringing together such comics as Chris Morris, Richard Herring, Stewart Lee, Peter Baynham and Steve Coogan. The members of this group went on to work on separate projects and create a new comedy "wave" pre-New Labour: Morris went on to create Brass Eye, Blue Jam and the Chris Morris Music Show; Stewart Lee and Richard Herring created Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard Not Judy.

Baynham was closely involved with both Morris' and Lee & Herring's work — simultaneously at one point. Lee would go on to co-write the controversial Jerry Springer — The Opera, but perhaps the most famous "alumnus" of this group is Steve Coogan's character Alan Partridge, who first appeared in On the Hour, and has featured in multiple spin-off series.

[edit] The Armando Iannucci Shows

The Armando Iannucci Shows was an eight-part series for Channel 4 broadcast in 2001. The series consisted of Iannucci pondering pseudo-philosophical and jocular ideas and fantasies.

[edit] The Thick of It

More recently, Iannucci devised, directed and was chief writer of The Thick of It, a political satire-cum-farce for BBC Four. It starred Chris Langham as an incompetent cabinet minister being manipulated by a cynical Press Officer, played by Peter Capaldi and based on Tony Blair's former Press Secretary Alastair Campbell. It was described by critics on BBC Two's Newsnight Review as a modern-day counterpart to Yes Minister, which Iannucci had championed on the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom competition. He has also participated as a panelist on Radio 4's The News Quiz, having produced the programme earlier in his career.

[edit] Time Trumpet

In Summer 2006, his spoof documentary series Time Trumpet was shown on BBC 2. It followed a similar format to his earlier one-off programmes in looking back on past events through highly edited clips and "celebrity" interviews, although this time was looking back on the present and near-future from the year 2031. One notable episode, featuring fictional terrorist attacks on London and the assassination of Tony Blair, was postponed and edited in August 2006 amid the terrorism scares in British airports at that time. Jane Thynne, writing in The Independent, accused the BBC of lacking backbone.[2]

[edit]

He has also directed the latest series of Post Office adverts, featuring the actors John Henshaw, Rory Jennings and Di Botcher alongside guest stars such as Joan Collins, Bill Oddie and Westlife.[3]

He has appeared on Radio 3 talking about classical music, one of his passions. He recently collaborated with composer David Sawer on Skin Deep, an operetta, which was premiered by Opera North on 16 January 2009.

[edit] In the Loop

In January 2009, his first feature film In the Loop, in the style of The Thick of It, was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It is the first cinema film to be directed by Iannucci, after his contribution to Tube Tales in 1999. The film has been applauded by critics, both in Britain and the US. [4] The film secured the eighth highest placing in the UK box office in its opening week - despite its relatively insignificant screening numbers. According to the British Film Institute screenonline, Iannucci had previously failed to secure funding for a historical comedy film in 2003.[5]

Iannucci used his BBC press pass to enter the US State Department headquarters whilst researching the film, saying how he just turned up and claimed to be "here for the 12.30". Iannucci spent an hour inside taking photographs which were used for the film's set designs.[6]

[edit] Recognition

Iannucci has won two Sony Radio Awards and three British Comedy Awards. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.[7] He was also subject of a 2006 edition of The South Bank Show.

[edit] Academic work

In January 2006 he took the post of News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at the University of Oxford,[8] where he has delivered a series of four lectures under the title "British Comedy — Dead Or Alive?", saying in his introduction to the series that "It used to be that you went to Oxford to get into comedy. Now you get into comedy to go to Oxford".

[edit] Personal life

In 1990, he married Rachael Jones. They have two sons and one daughter.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television

[edit] Radio

[edit] Film

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Print

  • Alan Partridge: Every Ruddy Word by Steve Coogan, Peter Baynham, Armando Iannucci, Patrick Marber (Michael Joseph, 2003) ISBN 0-7181-4678-6
  • Facts and Fancies (Michael Joseph, 1997) ISBN 0-7181-3951-8
  • Weekly newspaper column in The Observer
  • The Audacity of Hype: Bewilderment, Sleaze and Other Tales of the 21st Century (Little Brown, 2009) ISBN 978-1-4087-0197-3

[edit] Audiobooks

[edit] References

  1. ^ Armando Iannucci interview, 23 October, 2009
  2. ^ MEDIA DIARY - The war on humour
  3. ^ Joan Collins stars in Post Office ad | Media | MediaGuardian
  4. ^ http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article5554802.ece
  5. ^ Armando Iannucci biography and credits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
  6. ^ "Comedian sneaks into US State department". telegraph.co.uk. 8 May 2009. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5295148/Comedian-sneaks-into-US-State-department.html. Retrieved 8 May 2009. 
  7. ^ The 50 funniest people in Britain (part two) | Stage | The Observer
  8. ^ University of Oxford, 2005. "Armando Iannucci to lecture at Oxford on British comedy"

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armando_Iannucci"
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